"Chevron deference" was just overturned.

 

"Chevron deference" was just overturned.

 

 Well, some good news from the Supreme Court this time, which perhaps you've heard about.

What is somewhat pompously known as the "Chevron deference" was just overturned. This is a big deal, folks.

I just finished recording an episode of the Tom Woods Show on this and other Supreme Court topics with my old friend and erstwhile co-author Kevin Gutzman, but here's an excellent summary from our friend Spike Cohen of what just happened:

A family fishing company, Loper Bright Enterprises, was being driven out of business, because they couldn't afford the $700 per day they were being charged by the National Marine Fisheries Service to monitor their company.

The thing is, federal law doesn't authorize NMFS to charge businesses for this. They just decided to start doing it in 2013.

Why did they think they could away with just charging people without any legal authorization?

Because in 1984, in the Chevron decision, the Supreme Court decided that regulatory agencies were the "experts" in their field, and the courts should just defer to their "interpretation" of the law.

So for the past 40 years, federal agencies have been able to "interpret" laws to mean whatever they want, and the courts had to just go with it.

It was called Chevron Deference, and it put bureaucrats in charge of the country.

It's how the OHSA was able to decide that everyone who worked for a large company had to get the jab, or be fired.

No law gave them that authority, they just made it up.

It's how the ATF was able to decide a piece of plastic was a "machine gun."

It's how the NCRS was able to decide that a small puddle was a "protected wetlands."

It's how out-of-control agencies have been able to create rules out of thin air, and force you to comply, and the courts had to simply defer to them, because they were the "experts."

Imagine if your local police could just arrest you, for any reason, and no judge or jury was allowed to determine if you'd actually committed a crime or not. Just off to jail you go.

That's what Chevron Deference was.

It was not only blatantly unconstitutional, it caused immeasurable harm to everyone.

As I said, overturning this is a big deal.

The people weeping right now are some of the worst in our society, so that reinforces how good the decision to reverse it was.

Harvard's Laurence Tribe feels sorry not for Americans who have been endlessly harassed by these semi-lawless agencies, but for his legal buddies who were trained to operate in this environment: "The ones I feel sorry for are my administrative law colleagues who built their courses and careers around the intricacies of Chevron deference."

That this kind of people will have to find something else to do is a wonderful bonus, not something to deplore!

So I said to Tribe on Twitter: "I already support the decision; you don't have to keep selling it to me!"

The crazies are all blathering about "precedent" -- as if a mere 40 years were ten centuries -- even though they themselves have zero respect for precedent when the shoe is on the other foot.

Whenever something like this happens, when a wicked but seemingly irreversible feature of American life is suddenly overturned, it should lift our spirits: things we assume are forever may not be so forever after all.

Now, for your consideration:

(1) My friend Bretigne Shaffer, whose late father (and also a friend), Butler Shaffer, was that rare thing -- a good law professor -- operates a very nice membership on building parallel institutions in a society whose foundations are crumbling. Want to do something about what you see happening around you? Then join Bretigne's important project:

https://www.tomwoods.com/parallel

(2) Remember, folks, I have murder mystery dinner parties coming up in Charleston (SC), Boston, New Orleans, and Dallas, and they're a wonderful night out with me and with friends you haven't met yet. No prep necessary; we'll tell you exactly what to do. But these are a blast, and I hope you'll join me for one:

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